Soundbars vs. Speakers: Which Is Better?

When looking for a sound solution for yogur home or office, you will inevitably find yourself facing this choice: soundbars or traditional speakers?

The decision may turn out to be quite complicated — especially if you are not sure about what exactly you are looking for and what the key selling points of soundbars and speakers are.

If this is the case, it’s a great thing that you have come across this post. Today, we are looking into soundbars and speakers and their respective pros and cons so that you can make an informed decision.

What Is a Soundbar?

While most of us are probably well familiar with what a speaker is and what a speaker does (in fact, most of us probably do own a speaker or several), soundbars are relatively new.

So, what is a soundbar? And can soundbars be used for music? How about a home theater experience?

A soundbar is basically a bar-shaped device containing multiple speakers. And just like a speaker, it can be used with a TV, computer, MP3 player, tablet, phone, and more. It is an efficient audio solution that is much less expensive than a fully immersive home theater setup. Soundbars don’t rely on a receiver — and this means they can be placed anywhere and moved around freely. Soundbars are also generally compact, lightweight and well-designed.

So, can a soundbar replace speakers?

Traditional home speakers come with a separate speaker and an amplifier/receiver. With these, you will typically get better surround sound effects compared to a soundbar.

Now that we have quickly looked into what soundbars and speakers are, let’s try to figure out which of the two would work for you best.

Why Get a Soundbar?

As our TVs and computers get thinner, the TV soundbars and computer soundbars that come built into them have to get thinner as well. Quite naturally, this has led to lower sound quality. And this means that we often have to go looking beyond what comes built into our TVs for quality sound.

A soundbar can be a good solution for that — and it won’t break the bank. With a soundbar, you also get a number of options to choose from: you can go with a 3.1 soundbar (the one that includes three channels  — left, right and center — and a subwoofer), a 2.1 soundbar (the one that comes with a left and right channel and a subwoofer) or a 2.0 soundbar (the one with a left and right channel). There are even soundbars with surround sound.

• 3.1 soundbars come with a dedicated center channel. They are a great choice if you are generally having trouble hearing voices when you are watching TV. With a 3.1 soundbar, you get to have more clarity.

• 2.1 and 2.0 soundbars come with a left and a right channel. They are a great choice if you want to slightly enhance the sound of your TV’s speaker without investing in a major upgrade. A 2.1 soundbar comes with a subwoofer, and a 2.0 soundbar doesn’t have one. If your 2.1 soundbar comes with something called sound virtualization, it means that it will be able to trick your brain into believing that the sound is coming from all around you.

• Surround soundbars typically come with Dolby Atmos support and are capable of creating an immersive sound experience. They are marked as 5.1 or 7.1, where the figure shows the number of speakers. They come with center, left and right channels and two or four satellites. Plus, the dot-one (.1) versions also feature a subwoofer. So, if you are looking for a way to bring immersive sound quality to a limited space, surround soundbars are your best bet.

While soundbars used to be looked at as lower-level alternatives to full-fledged home theater systems, they have come a long way since. Today, soundbars keep getting better and better and continuously deliver improved separation of sound.

High-quality soundbars can easily make you feel as if you are surrounded by speakers — but you will need to go for the premium-priced soundbars to achieve this effect.

Why Get a Traditional Speaker System?

Traditional home speakers are what you need if you are looking to create an authentic home theater experience — and have the space to accommodate it all.

A traditional speaker system can give you a great audio experience for watching movies and TV shows. You will get to enjoy genuine surround sound effects with rear speakers involved — and the whole setup is generally very flexible.

As most speaker systems are mix-and-match, you won’t be bound by any shopping restrictions and won’t have to stick with one speaker manufacturer. What’s more, you can go on to expand and upgrade your speakers and receivers as you see fit.

Alternatively, you can go ahead and buy your speaker system in a package or bundle. You can start with the 2.1 stereo sound system, which includes a left and right speaker together with a subwoofer — these are great for listening to music. Or, you can go all the way to the 11.1 system, which includes speakers on either side in the front and back, a center channel, a subwoofer, and more. Most users, however, seem to be quite content with a basic stereo or 5.1 setup.

Compared to soundbars, these types of speaker systems are more complex — and pricier. A full home audio speaker setup can easily cost you upwards of $1,000. With that, however, you will be getting a movie theatre experience in the comfort of your home. What’s more, you can use your speaker system as an HDMI hub for other devices like gaming consoles, streaming devices, phones, tablets, etc.

Is a soundbar better than speakers or vice versa?

It all depends on what you expect from your audio system and how much you are willing to spend on it. What you watch most is also a factor to consider: news and sitcoms will sound great with a soundbar, but if you are looking for an immersive experience for sports and action movies, you may want to invest in a home speaker unit.

Now, if you enjoy quality audio, you probably already know how hard it is to send over audio files online. High-quality audio and video files (whether it’s music, movies, etc.) tend to weigh quite a lot of gigabytes. And this makes your options for transferring them over the web very limited.

Most email platforms have disappointingly low attachment limits — with Gmail, for instance, you won’t be able to send over a file that weighs more than 25 MB.

Cloud storage platforms are a good option, but they also come with limitations of their own. You can generally only store a limited amount for free — and then you will need to commit to a paid subscription billable on a monthly or yearly basis. What’s more, some users may feel uncomfortable storing their personal data in the cloud.

So, is there an alternative for sending large files and folders online? There is, and it’s called FileWhopper.

FileWhopper is a new file transfer platform focused specifically on sending very large files and folders over the web — perfect for audio and video folders. There are no size limits for the items you can send over with FileWhopper — you can easily send a 10TB folder.

Sending a large file or folder with FileWhopper is very easy. All you will need to do is download FileWhopper’s small app to upload your data. Your recipient will need to do the same to get access to your file or folder. They can start downloading it as soon as you start the upload — there is no need to wait for the upload to complete on your side.

With FileWhopper, you can send over your large files in their original state. There is no need to compress them or split a large folder into smaller ones. All you have to do is simply upload your file or folder just as it is and follow the instructions from there. This is not only a great time saver but can also help you avoid lots of issues that often follow file compression.

When it comes to payment, things are very straightforward too. You don’t need to subscribe to FileWhopper or make any other long-term financial commitments. You only pay once for the file or folder you want to transfer, and the fee is based solely on its size. You will get a price quote as soon as you upload your data, and you can also choose who pays for the transfer: you or the person receiving it.

FileWhopper will also be a much more comfortable option if you are worried about data privacy. The service uses zero-knowledge encryption, which prevents anyone but you from accessing your files. You won’t have to worry about data leaks, hackers or ransomware.

In case of a technical issue (like a connection failure, power outage, etc.), your transfer will simply be paused and will pick up from where it left off when things get back to normal.

As you can see from the above, FileWhopper can be of great help if you have a large file or folder to send over the internet. And you can check whether we are right about this for yourself. Simply head over to FileWhopper.com and make use of your free first 5GB file transfer right now. This gives you a great chance to see how the platform works and test out all of its features first-hand.